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BGRA: Ken Smith BSR5N 5-string
| Manufacturer |
Ken Smith |
Model |
BSR5N 5-string |
| Reviewer |
Dan Basica |
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| Experience |
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Item owned |
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| Review Date |
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Price paid |
about $2400 US street price |
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Neck Type | Neck-through 5-piece maple neck with dark stringers (not sure of wood, looks like rosewood or wenge) |
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Fingerboard | Ebony, with flawless fret job |
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Body Type | Solid flame maple body wings |
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Finish | Natural oil finsh (Smith calls is stradivari gold) |
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Pickup(s) | 2 Smith open-pole soapbars |
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Controls | Volume (pull out for passive), pan, bass, mid, treble |
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This is my second high-end bass (prior was Alembic Spoiler 5). If you
lust after beautiful woods and gold hardware with a sound to match,
Smith basses are among the best. Craftsmanship couldn't be better, I
can't find a thing to even nit pick about. The bass is well balanced
(no neck diving) and feels great in your hands. Sting spacing is near
standard (11/16" versus 3/4" standard) at the bridge, but at the nut
it is a little closer and gives sort of a Jazz bass feel even on a
5-string. I'm really happy with the string spacing; plenty of room for
slap and pop, but easy on the left hand as well (I don't have long
fingers). The nut is a custom shaped brass nut and is scouped out
between the strings (imagine each string sitting on top of a little
mountain of brass). Great sustain and clear notes including the B
string. The electronics are wonderful, a great balance between clean
unprocessed sound (like some active basses) and hi-fi. The controls
are very straightforward with volume, pan, bass, mid, high. Pull out
on the volume and you get passive mode, which sounds like the same
bass with the controls set flat. The output is also matched, so
active is not louder than passive (if you have active set flat of
course). This bass is very versatile. You can coax P and J type
sounds or scoup the mids and crank the bass and high to get an MM like
sound. That said, the bass does have it's own voice. The main things
I like about this bass versus the Alembic are the more versatile
sounds (the Alembic always sounded like an Alembic) and the feel of
the neck/string spacing. The Alembic has close spacing and the neck
doesn't get much wider as you go higher in pitch (not much room to
slap/pop). You could spend more on a Smith bass, but it would be
largely cosmetic (more laminates, choices of woods, lacquer finish,
etc.)
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| construction |
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| playability |
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| appearance |
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| sound |
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| value |
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| overall |
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